Re: Applying shaders to particles

[jellyroll]

Hi all!
I need help! How do you apply a shader to a particle? I tried just right clicking on my shader and choosing "assign material to selection" and then I did a hardware render, and the default lambert is still on it. Please Help!

[danielroizman]

You cannot assign shaders to hardware render type particles within Maya with Maya's current toolset. To create any shading effects that are visible in the hardware renderer, you need to write expressions to control the rgbPP value of the particles.

However, Stroika, a plug-in from www.kolektiv.com , allows you to assign shaders and textures to hardware render type particles without the need for expressions. You also use all of your Maya lights to illuminate your particles.

You can download a free trial of the software at the kolektiv website.

[goli]

What are you talking about?

If you're using sprites, you can most assuredly assign a custom texture from the hypershade to the particles. If you want to cycle a series or add PP attrib's then you will want to use expressions. But if you want to assign an image all you have to do is create a new material, map an image to the color channel and then assign that material to the particle object.

[danielroizman]

i think you are confusing assiging a 2D texture to a sprite with assigning a shader to a sprite. Yes, you can use sprites with 2D textures, and true you do technically assign a shader with a 2D texture mapped to it to your sprite.

But the shader does get calculated on the sprite the same way as it would in software. It does not react to real lights in Maya, it doesn't respect reflectivity, or highlights or incandescene the same way as it does in software.

Hardware rendered particles, including sprites and points can have a shader assigned and you can adjust the color of the shader (not map it, unless you are using sprites with a 2D texture), and you can even adjust diffuse properties, but only in the most basic way. No lighting or shading is calculated in hardware, and therefore the idea that you are assiging a shader that can modify the shading properties of an object is not possible without mimicking the behavior of the shading properties of highlight, transparency, translucense all through expression.